Shin Jang-sik

The starting point of the artist's career in the late 1980s. 〈Arirang — A Joyful Day〉 won the Grand Prize at the 1989 Korea National Art Exhibition, bringing him to wider recognition. Translating traditional Korean visual idioms — cheongsa-choreong lanterns and the soemyul (vanishing) technique — into contemporary painting, critic Choi Tae-man read this body of work as an emblem of self-affirmation and generosity. Spanning both painting and woodblock prints, the 〈Arirang〉 series became the aesthetic foundation of the artist's lifelong practice.

Begun in 1993 with the 〈Mt. Geumgang〉 series, this has remained the artist's central subject for over thirty years. After Mt. Geumgang tourism opened in 1998, he visited the mountain over ten times, depicting Inner, Outer, and Sea Geumgang. His mist and light, rendered through a hanji-paper splash technique and yin-yang chromatics, led critic Kim Yu-sook to read a contemporary view of landscape in the work, while Park Eun-sun placed his practice in the lineage of historical 〈Mt. Geumgang〉 paintings. 〈Mt. Geumgang from Sangpaldam〉 (2001) was hung at the Peace House for the 2018 inter-Korean summit and was later moved to the National Assembly hall. The same year, 〈Light on the Cheonhwadae of Mt. Geumgang〉 (2014) was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's special exhibition 〈Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art〉.

A new stage continuing the Mt. Geumgang practice that was halted by the division of the peninsula. An extension of the Jingyeongsansu tradition, painted from direct ascents of the Baekdu-daegan range and Mt. Seorak's ridges and rocky peaks. 〈Light and Hope on the Cheonhwadae of Gongryong Ridge, Mt. Seorak〉 is a recent representative work, conveying the mountain's presence through the natural texture of pigment.

Printmaking is the other pillar of the artist's practice alongside painting. The 1989 Grand Prize-winning 〈Arirang — A Joyful Day〉 was a woodblock print, followed by the Patron's Prize at the 1st Sapporo International Print Biennale (1991) and Second Prizes at the 4th and 5th Wakayama International Print Biennales (1991, 1993). In 1992, he was invited to documenta IX in Kassel — a rare honor for a Korean artist at the time. Spanning thirty years of woodblock prints, etchings, and digital prints, he served as president of the Korean Contemporary Printmakers Association from 2017 to 2019.

The artist's later body of work, taking form in the 2012 〈Samādhi〉 exhibition. Travel and practice, self-portrait and meditation — the views of one who crosses mountains gather on the canvas. Grounded in the 2007 journey from Lhasa to Kathmandu and the subsequent 〈In Search of Mandala〉 and 〈In Search of Shaman〉 series, the work was framed by critic Choi Tae-man as a wayfarer on the path, or one searching for the way. At the 2017 〈Gil (Path)〉 exhibition at Gallery DOS, the artist said in conversation that on the path, he asks the way.